Artificial lighting links and discussion

For years I used standard halogen "flood lamps" to light chicks and on those occasions that I light layers. Recently after discussing lighting on another I started doing some more research on proper artificial lighting and wanted to share some of the links I've found along the way. I've not fully covered all of the information I will be sharing so I figured I would get the masses involved and we can all learn a little bit about proper lighting. Some of these sites will cover nearly the same information but I feel that each describes certain points in more understandable terms.

Before reading these links it may help to understand that domestic poultry are tetrachromatic meaning they four independent channels for processing colors. Humans are trichromatic meaning we only have three channels. Essentially your birds see a whole lot more colors than you do. The light we see helps to stimulate important processes in our bodies and the same goes for poultry, except that they are especially sensitive to light and require specific light to maximize their health, growth, and production.

Some of these links are purely informative and others are presenting research to advertise actual products.

I had my birds under 13 watt Ccfl, which are only 2700k color temp. I ended up switching them to some 13 watt full spectrum ccfl at 6300K color temp. They seemed much happier with that color temp. Well, till today when the roo flipped his lid and attacked everything. I don't think the light played a part in that though.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I only use lighting for a few hours each night during winter to stimulate egg production (to get 14 hours of light) Anyway the next time I need to buy a bulb I will check to make sure it is a "warm light" as the articles consider this the best option.
HowieNZ

I had my birds under 13 watt Ccfl, which are only 2700k color temp. I ended up switching them to some 13 watt full spectrum ccfl at 6300K color temp. They seemed much happier with that color temp. Well, till today when the roo flipped his lid and attacked everything. I don't think the light played a part in that though.

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I've read somewhere but can't find any science to back, the fact that many cool lights actually contain all of the proper wavelengths of light just tend to have sharper peaks of those wavelengths. I'm not sure if there are even any negative effects to running a cool light that does contain the proper wavelengths.

All I know is with the full spectrum at 6300k is supposed to be closer to normal sunlight, and my birds seems to play a lot more under it, which I equate to being happier. However, with them being more active they do seem to eat quite a bit more but grow slower. If that makes sense. This batch started laying much earlier under the full spectrum at 5.5 weeks. The hens under the 2700k light didn't start laying until almost 9 weeks. They came from same gene pool. Only difference in their setup was the light temperature.
I couldn't afford to buy that many of the full spectrum ccfl when I found them.

Very interesting articles. I have been using these they are zip tied on the backs of the cages. Wired to a 12volt phone adapter that is plugged into a timer.

Seems to work very well. Most days I get more eggs than hens. So some of them must be laying more than 1 egg a day.

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Unless some of your roos are laying?

My latest batch of youngsters have started laying this week and the ones on the completely shaded patio layed before the groups out in the yard with direct sun on part of their cages. IDK why that happened. Of course their diet is the same.

Great timing on this DC, and thanks for putting it all together. I am just starting to think about artificial light for my quail and how i should set it up. Since mine will be outside, I assume I should go for a somewhat weather proof model (though the light itself will be under a roof/covering of some sort of course).